Chapter 272
The last fifteen days marked a period of transition, a gateway leading into the first arc, the early tenth episode.
It was a shift of acts within Flo Viva Mythology that now echoed into their present reality, carrying with it the winds of change and the faint scent of new conflict lingering on the horizon.
The scenario awaiting them, as he remembered from the data and narrative threads he once knew, began to crystallize within his mind.
Star Academy would become the stage for a different kind of trial.
Two classes, Ilux's class and Erietta's class, would be merged not within a theoretical hall, but upon a brutal field.
A mission that was also a survival competition would be held in an extremely harsh environment, a territory deliberately cultivated or created to test the limits of the students.
That land was a canvas of terror, inhabited by countless strange creatures, savage and alien forms of life.
They were not merely monsters, but embodiments of the cruelty of nature itself, tangible illustrations of the law of the jungle where the strong endure and the weak are crushed.
The task sounded mathematically simple.
Kill as many monsters as possible.
The group or individual with the highest total kills would be crowned the winner.
However, the dynamics beneath it were far more complicated.
Theo remembered that within this narrative, Ilux—already ostracized and pushed aside by his own classmates—would choose to face the mission alone, in a solitude that burned fiercely.
A decision born from exclusion and pride.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Erietta would not be alone.
She would join a group, and the most important companion at her side would be a student bound to her by a faint yet significant blood tie.
Her own half-sibling.
At first, the rhythm of the competition unfolded in a predictable manner, still within the bounds of the academy's harsh but acceptable norms.
The shouts of tactics, the shrill sound of weapons piercing monster flesh, and the groans of fallen creatures filled the suffocating jungle air.
Students competed against one another, scrambling for kill counts, their eyes blazing with enthusiasm and ambition.
They were hunters, and the forest was their field of points.
Everything appeared to be an extreme survival test that still followed clear rules, where monsters were the common enemy and rivalry among humans remained confined within strict sportsmanship.
That atmosphere, however, changed drastically when a whispered yet lethal command slipped from the lips of Erietta's half-brother.
The order was not to hunt monsters, but to hunt a human.
The target was Erietta herself.
The reason, though never spoken aloud amid the roar of battle, felt painfully clear and classically aristocratic in nature.
Erietta's presence, with all her natural charm and ability, was deemed a threat, a blemish upon a noble lineage that could disrupt succession or tarnish reputation.
The intent was dark and calculated, a murder disguised within the chaos of a survival competition.
With rhetoric that exploited jealousy and the hidden inferiority festering in many students' hearts, the half-brother succeeded in forging a poisonous consensus.
Approximately eighty-nine percent of the students in Erietta's class, secretly tormented by the prestige and attention she always received, agreed to the vile plan.
Long-suppressed envy transformed into silent consent to take a life.
They shifted from classmates into a vicious pack of hunters, surrounding Erietta deep within the forest with an intent far crueler than that of any monster.
The situation reached its peak when Erietta, surrounded and perhaps already resigned, was about to accept a death sentence she did not understand.
The blades of betrayal were raised, ready to conclude a family conflict in the most primitive manner.
At the most critical second, an intervention arrived like a raging storm.
Ilux, the loner who should have been focused solely on his own hunt, suddenly appeared.
His five elemental powers erupted not to kill monsters, but to form a devastating defensive tornado.
The energy struck the encircling group, and its primary focus—the half-brother—was hurled away with brutal force.
His body flew through the air, and his head slammed into a massive rock with a heavy sound that shattered every scheme.
The consequences were not immediately visible, but were later diagnosed by doctors.
Total amnesia.
His memories, ambitions, and hatred were completely erased by the impact.
From the wreckage of betrayal and chaos, Erietta stood, alive yet shaken.
Her eyes, usually filled with confidence, were now wide and trembling beneath restraint.
She looked at Ilux, the savior who had come from the most unexpected place.
Overwhelming gratitude flooded her, an acknowledgment of an immense debt.
She vowed, her voice perhaps still shaking but resolute, that she would repay him.
'Small moments together—eating side by side, walking home together, shared laughter—led to one point.
Ilux asking Erietta out on a date.
From the beginning, that had always been the intended direction of the plot.'
The days that followed flowed through Star Academy like a ceaseless river, carrying fragments of events and turning them into a powerful current of opinion.
In Erietta's class, the air that had once been filled with subtle admiration and charm grew cold and heavy with whispers.
Erietta's actions—or more precisely, the consequences of her self-defense involving Ilux—were twisted into a narrative of cruelty.
The students, especially those who had joined the hunting pack or secretly supported it, began spreading subtle discrimination.
Erietta was deemed ruthless, accused of lacking humanity toward her own half-sibling, leading to total amnesia.
Cynical glances, veiled mockery, and social exclusion began to erode her position as the academy's darling.
She was no longer surrounded by others, but observed with suspicion and discomfort.
Yet, in the midst of that wave of isolation, an unexpected fortress took shape.
The closeness between Ilux and Erietta, born from a dramatic rescue, grew into something undeniable.
They were no longer situational allies, but two points drawn toward each other amid their respective loneliness.
The rhythm of their daily lives began to align.
They were seen eating together in the cafeteria, sitting side by side at tables that had once been crowded with people.
They walked home together, leaving the academy gates in synchronized steps, as if forming a bubble of their own amid gazes and whispers that tried to pierce it.
That bond was strengthened by a newly discovered similarity in their natures.
At their core, both were individuals accustomed to solitude, though for different reasons.
Erietta, once familiar with the spotlight, now tasted isolation, while Ilux had long since mastered it.
Within that shared fate, they found comfort.
Light conversations began to flow, and honest, unrestrained laughter escaped between them.
It was a sound rarely heard from either of them, a strange melody played only when the two were alone together.
In the end, the courage long buried within Ilux—the loner who usually avoided the complexity of relationships—found its momentum.
Driven by growing closeness and deep understanding, he took a step that was monumental within his world.
One day, perhaps beneath a sky tinged with orange at dusk or in a quiet corner of the library, Ilux gathered all his resolve.
His voice might have been flat, or perhaps slightly trembling, but his intent was clear.
He asked Erietta out on a date.
Not as a duty, not as repayment, but as an invitation from one human being to another—an invitation to step beyond the roles of savior and the saved, into a space that was more personal and, perhaps, more vulnerable.
To be continued…